the SCOUTING REPORT

The GHSA And Reclassification

So, which way are we headed. Are we going to reclassify, or not going to reclassify?

According to what I’ve heard, the main association that governs everything that most of Georgia’s high schools can and can’t do is now leaning toward reclassiification. It won’t affect us until the 2023 and 2024 season; so there’s still plenty of time to change their minds again.

Football Schedules Released

There are some interesting names that dot the schedules of the local schools in 2022.

For instance, this season Vidalia will visit the Academy of Richmond County Musketeers’ campus stadium in Augusta for a return game, and will also welcome the Class AAAAA Stockbridge Tigers to Buck Cravey Stadium on September 17.

The Indians will also have a return engagement with Bleckley County in Cochran on September 10. We all remember what happened the last time we saw the Royals.

Meanwhile, Toombs County will make the long ride to Nashville to take on Berrien County on September 10, a week after opening in Eastman against Dodge County.

After hosting Pelham on September 17, the Bulldogs will host Riverside Military School on September 24.

The Eagles from Gainesville, Georgia, will make that long ride from North Georgia to take on the Bulldogs in Booster Stadium.

Most of these games just make high school football that much more interesting, sort of like college teams from the SEC taking on the Big 10 or the Big 12.

Publics And Privates

Vidalia’s three-game series against The Lovett School from Atlanta started me thinking about the mixed results most public schools in Georgia have had against private schools.

Of course, who wouldn’t like an education at a Lovett, a Westminster, or a Greater Atlanta Christian. These schools always seem to have an unlimited supply of resources that the smaller publics do not have.

The Indians have had some success against the Atlanta privates. Of course, when Vidalia fans think about the Atlanta privates, they recall the great battles against Greater Atlanta Christian in both baseball and football.

The first time the Indians faced GACS in a major team sport was a controversial baseball playoff series against the Spartans in 2001. The controversy was sparked after the Indians had taken game 1 in Atlanta.

The Spartans won game 2 on a controversy. Both teams were wearing maroon jerseys, almost dressed alike.

The Spartans scored the winning runs by impeding a play at the plate when several players ran out of the dugout and congregated around home plate while the team scored the tying and winning runs in Game 2.

Vidalia got their revenge in 2003, by winning the GHSA AA Baseball State Championship series against GACS in three games; and then beat- continued from page

ing the Spartans 20-14 in a thrilling Class AA quarterfinal.

GACS got revenge on the Indians in 2014 and 2015 on the gridiron, and knocked off the defending State Champion Indians in 2004 on the diamond before losing to eventual State Champion Bacon County in the next round.

We have a history against GACS. Since they’ve moved up to AAA, maybe Lovett is in our future.